LES MISERABLES REVIEW (so after the fact, as I saw it in the theater opening night)

I saved it but never posted it, I was on amazon i think & saw some reviews dissing the actors or whatever & so i wrote this addressing them. Had I been writing a "real" movie review, it would be much more concise, in depth, touch on the whole story, at the very least, but unfortunately that's not what I did here. As if anyone is reading any of my posts/blogs anyway right? :P 

And I'm actually going to write a REAL film review for once! Normally I will just give my opinion on a film, maybe touch on the characters, in regards to what I thought, etc. but I never really do a synopsis of a film. I respected Roger Ebert a great deal (we almost always agreed on films & had the same thoughts! since i was a little kid), BUT sometimes it has been off-putting for me to read a review of his prior to seeing a film, as he would expound on the ENTIRE story & obviously that can ruin the film for you to varying degrees. I finally started just looking at how many stars he gave a film & maybe read the first paragraph, then waited to read his entire review until after I saw a film. SO much better that way! 

First, let me start by addressing (or commenting) on the people dissing the actors, their singing abilities, etc.

the singing/the songs, AS written originally for the play, if you think about it, is NOT supposed to be about who can sing the best, how pretty can they make the song.

that is the last consideration really. if you want HONESTY in your films (or even stage) musicals that is, and that is what THIS "les miserables" is about. for starters, they are singing LIVE, take after take after take, WHILE they are acting, and the acting takes precedence, in my opinion anyway. the story, the characters, what they make you FEEL, is a million times more important than "oh i don't know if they sang that song to perfection". gimme a break you naysayers. yes, films are about escapism, and suspending not only your disbelief, but your reality as well, though this film is STEEPED in reality....that reality being the human condition, which we ALL can (or should) be able to relate to.

so instead of having gone into the studio months and months prior to filming, before the actors even ACTED the roles, they have to then decide and TOTALLY commit to how they are going to perform the role and are stuck to it regardless of what happens, because they laid it down in the studio, so the die is cast.

would YOU want to do that as an actor? make all of your acting choices before you even got on the set? before you even became the role? before you even interacted (and acted) w/your fellow actors?

people are too used to the "perfect", prettied up musicals. i myself have always loved musicals, the great ones, that is, but i always did find it cheesy that there was perfect playback that they were lip synching along too and how they are walking down the street and suddenly break into song and everyone else joins in and happens to know the song and the dance routine. c'mon, that IS cheesy, and totally unrealistic. maybe i prefer realism more than most. so while i overlooked that w/my much beloved musicals, i still always struck a false note (no pun) w/me. "Chicago" did a great job (the film), because the director came up with a way for it NOT to be cheesy, he made it imaginations of Roxy Hart and that brought up the level of "Chicago"'s greatness even higher.

Also people have mentioned the quality of the actors singing voices. They ALL (w/the exception of Russell Crowe in my opinion), have AMAZING voices, and as a singer and musician myself, I know what I speak of. Russell's is passable and that's about it in my opinion, but Anne, Hugh, Eddie, Samantha, Amanda all have fantastic, amazing voices, especially Sam, Anne, Eddie and Amanda, they could be professional singers in a hot second if they so desired.

Okay enough about the naysayers and the disappointed. Les Miserables is a BEAUTIFUL, sad, moving, amazing, hopeful, cinematically (ok amazon, i'm spelling it correctly, not sure why the underlining) stunning and beautifully produced film, bottom line, no bones about it. Tom Hooper took on a close to impossible task in his undertaking of this much loved, MUCH seen story.

It is also considered to be THE best musical EVER written!! ever!! Based on Victor Hugo's novel written in 1862, or first published in 1862, i have it on my kindle & am reading it at the moment, along w/a few other novels i have going. 

Well okay, I'm gonna do it anyway, I'm going to give a synopsis while I'm here posting this.....

"Les Miserables", French literature at it's finest, written, as aforementioned, by Victor Hugo (who also wrote "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1831), for those of you that are familiar w/at least the film versions of that story as well), it IS considered to be one of the greatest novels of the 19th century!) is a story based on the lives of a few particular people: Jean Valjean, Fantine, Inspector Javert, Cosette, Marius, and Eponine. The lesser characters that still have a fair amount of screen time are: Enjolras, the Thenardiers (Eponine's parents & Cosette's caretakers for most of her early life), & countless additional characters for the time, the setting, the Revolutionaries: the young men wanting to change France & change the lives of the people of France, putting an end to the suffering & starvation that was rampant. The poor & wretched, whom are everywhere in this film & in history of course. As a matter of fact, Les Miserables can be translated into a number of words/meanings. Literally the translation is: "the miserable" or "the miserable ones", but it's also been translated as: "the wretched", "the poor ones", "the wretched poor", "the victims", "the dispossessed", according to how poor the translation from the original french was. 

oh dammit, i don't have time to finish this, so i'm going to post it now & perhaps come back later & finish my "official review" of the film, which i was finally attempting to do.